Hong Chi La was 23 years old when he died on Sunday, June 10, 2001, in Koreatown. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 3124 W. 8th St. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department Wilshire Division case.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report recorded his death in a single sentence drawn from coroner's records. It described him as "a 23-year-old Asian male" who "died Sunday, June 10, after being stabbed in Koreatown." It gave no other details about what happened, and no follow-up story about his death appears to have been published.
Beyond his name, his age and the place where he died, almost nothing about Hong Chi La has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this story, and no news outlet appears to have reported on the death.
He surely had family, friends or neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record. His name is short and shares its syllables with many others, so searches for it turn up mostly unrelated people, among them a Taiwanese film actor, a professional baseball pitcher, researchers cited in medical papers and men named in family obituaries in Massachusetts and elsewhere. None of them can be connected to the young man who died in Koreatown in 2001.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether he was stabbed during a fight or a robbery, attacked by a stranger or by someone he knew, or hurt indoors or on the street. It does not say what time of day he was hurt, whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital, whether anyone saw what happened, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
He was only 23, and young men in their late teens and twenties made up a large share of homicide victims in Los Angeles at the time.
Koreatown is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Los Angeles, a district of apartment buildings, office towers, restaurants, karaoke bars and shops west of downtown. Many of its residents are immigrants from Korea, Mexico, Central America and other parts of Asia, and many are renters who work long hours in the area's businesses. Eighth Street is one of the east-west streets that cross the neighborhood south of Wilshire Boulevard, lined with apartment buildings, mini-malls and small businesses. In 2001 this part of Koreatown fell within the LAPD's Wilshire Division.
Homicides in Los Angeles rose sharply in the early 2000s, climbing past 600 in 2002, and detectives carried heavy caseloads. Many killings from those years were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Hong Chi La could be found in news archives or public records. More than 24 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew a 23-year-old man named Hong Chi La in Koreatown, or who was near the 3100 block of West 8th Street in early June 2001, may hold information that could help detectives. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 (877-LAPD-24-7), or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
